Late Friday meeting between Harperand Layton quiets talk of an election

A late Friday afternoon meeting between Stephen Harper and Jack Layton may have quietly averted a spring election call.

By both leader’s accounts the pre-budget tête-à-tête at Harper’s Langevin office was cordial and respectful. “The prime minister offered no assurances, but I am confident that my proposals were received and well understood,” Layton said.

Harper’s director of communications, Dimitri Soudas, confirmed that the prime minister was pleased to hear Layton’s views. “The prime minister is always willing to listen to what other opposition leaders propose; specific ideas,” he said.

Layton presented the prime minister with his party’s four budget priorities:

1. Remove the federal sales tax from skyrocketing home-heating bills, and restore the EcoEnergy Retrofit program.
2. Help vulnerable seniors by increasing their Guaranteed Income Supplement.
3. Strengthen the Canada Pension Plan.
4. Ensure that 5 million Canadians no longer have to go without a family doctor.

Liberal finance critic Scott Brison described the list as “trinkets and bobbles.”

He said the Liberals are offering Canadians more when it comes to home care, families, and learning.

“The idea that the NDP would be opposed to corporate tax cuts when Canada’s in surplus, but would support them when we’re in deficit, I find particularly peculiar.”

Brison has met with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to discuss the Liberal Party’s budget priorities, but there has been no such meeting with the PMO.

But Brison said Friday’s meeting did not catch him by surprise.

“The mating ritual of Stephen Harper and Jack Layton has been quite flamboyant on the floor of the House. It’s got a certain awkwardness to it, but there’s still something vaguely romantic in a sophomoric way,” he told iPolitics. “But it’s been pretty obvious based on their to-ing and fro-ing on the floor of the House that they’re trying to find a way to work with each other.”

Layton maintained that the NDP is ready to fight an election — but said the way out is on the table.

The prime minister maintains that “this is not the time for an opportunistic election,” Soudas said.

Layton is open to meeting with Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe, but no such meeting has been scheduled, a spokesperson said.

Together, the NDP and the Conservative Party hold 179 of the 305 occupied seats in the House.